...one more thing!

Gadzooks!

I just realised that the lovely shawl which I finished in November just before I went home to Canada never had its moment in the sun!

So, better late than never I hereby present the Peacock Feathers Shawl.



The shawl was knit on 3 mm needles with Posh Yarn Cecilia. The yarn is a subtle variegation of goldy/greeny/browny colours and much more 'alive' than in these photographs.

This is one of those patterns that I bought ages ago (18 months ago I'd guess) which I finally got around to casting on in November. The pattern isn't available for download but is available in hardcopy from quite a few yarn shops and online vendors. I got mine from the Woolly Workshop (always speedy and reliable!).

Knit with the smaller needles, the shawl is 72 inches across the top, with a drop of 37 inches.

It's a pleasant knit, although I did get a little bored in the middle section.

(I've got Radio 4 on in the background and was momentarily distracted when I heard someone say "we need more funding to help those battling a knitting disorder". Wow! That's serious. But it turns out it was just a strong Northern Ireland accent and she actually said "an eating disorder".)

For those of you who have inquired I am still enjoying my (temporary) retirement.

I still don't really know what I want to do next -- but I have a good idea what I don't want to do. I guess that's not a bad first step.

In the meantime I enjoy the luxury of lots and lots of time.

Heaven.

The Last Project of 2008

On my flight home the air steward (the one who knit) recommended that I visit Loop in Halifax if I had a chance. I didn't have much time in Halifax - I arrived in the evening and was due to be on a train bound for home at noon. However, the disaster of running out of yarn for Kali's mittens coupled with the happy realisation that Loop was a short walk from the hair salon (I had to get my hair cut, my hair was a mess) convinced me to add the shop to my morning itinerary.

Loop is a great shop with very friendly staff and if that isn't enough (it is) it is attached to a cafe where I had one of the best latte's I've ever had. Not to mention some delicious home made toffee that the barista kindly gave me.

Unfortunately I was on a bit of a mitten wool mission so I didn't have much time for browsing but I did allow myself to be distracted long enought to grab Knitted Lace of Estonia. Which of course meant I needed some laceweight yarn so I grabbed a couple of skeins of the ever reliable Jaggerspun Zephyr in a deep green colour.

Knitted Lace of Estonia is a lovely book, but I expect if you are a lace knitter you know that and probably have a copy already. If you don't - what are you waiting for?

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I settled on Madli's Shawl (which had been on my 'to knit' list for ages, it was also published in Interwerweave Knits Summer 2004). I wanted a wider, longer stole than the version in the book so I added additional repeats of the pattern (width and lengthwise).

I cast on at home in New Brunswick and worked on it on the train journey to Halifax and the flight back to London. A truly international creation!

The pattern in the body of the stole is pretty easy to remember and is fine for train (or TV) knitting. There are lots of nupps in the pattern - but as I've said before once you learn to do these they aren't bad at all. (If you are struggling there is a tutorial by Nancy Bush on Youtube. The key is to make the nupp stitches CRAZY loose. When you knit the stitch actually pull the right hand needle to the right to make the stitch longer, use your thumb to keep the YO's long. The stitches should look really odd alongside the other stitches because they are that loose.)

The details:
Madli's Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia and Interweave Knits, Summer 2004
3.5 mm needles
2 full skeins (1260 yards) of Jaggerspun Zephyr (50% wool 50% silk)

Unblocked size: 52" x 21"
Blocked size: 70" x 22"

The stole is held closed in the picture above with a lovely shawl pin by Romi.

Catching Up - Part 2 Socks and a Scarf

Yesterday morning I wrapped up warm and braved the after Christmas chaos that is Oxford Street. I went early so it wasn't too bad, but certainly busier than the average Monday morning. John Lewis and Liberty both have lots of Rowan yarn on sale (50% off) but I avoided going crazy and came away with 3 balls of KidSilk Spray in gorgeous red shades (darker than in this photo). Feeling like this frugality deserved a little reward I took a break in the Liberty cafe.....where I spent £11 on a bacon roll, cup of tea and some orange juice. That, combined with my rail fare for the day sort of wiped out the 50% saving on the yarn.

Hmmm. Perhaps I need to study up a bit more on this financial responsibility thing.

Back to the Canada trip......

One of the things I discovered when I was home was that quite a few of my relatives read the blog. So - hello to all of you!!

I also discovered that I never need to worry about finding a home for a pair of socks again. I now have a VERY long sock list and I'm looking forward to working my way through it next year. In the interests of full disclosure I should let my aunts Sheila and Simonne that they have been pushed down the list a bit since our last conversation as my Dad expressed an interest in having some socks. He obviously catapults right to the top of the list, and gets a few pair.

When it came time to exchange gifts at our mini-Christmas the mittens were complete (and very well received) but some socks and a scarf were - well - not.

The first pair of socks just needed the toes grafted and some ends woven in, so they were completed pretty quickly. They were for my younger sister, made with a superwash merino from MiddleEarthYarns and a 5 x 2 rib, with slipped stitches on the 5 rib. (Modified HelloYarns pattern for fingering weight yarn.)

The socks are pictured here with a matching Pez dispenser.




My niece Dyl has been waiting for a pair of socks for a very long time. In fact I can't really remember when she was put on the list -- but I think it might have been February or March. In appreciation for her patience I completed this pair of socks in colourful Socks that Rock yarn. She put them on immediately when they were completed and was still wearing them when she left. (Which to be fair was the next day.)

These are modelled on Dyl's feet.



The last pair of socks were for Dyl's mom and I'm afraid these weren't finished until after they had gone back home. The socks are Opal 6 ply so went quite quickly (but obviously not quickly enough). She likes them for curling and I'm sure if she ever actually gets these ones (they are still waiting to be posted by my mom) they will keep her toes toasty on the ice.

Finally, I had decided to make my Mom a scarf for Christmas - but during the mini-Christmas exchange it was just a ball of yarn (I think it was Smooshy Dream in Colour) and a pattern.

What pattern? Well the Swallowtail of course! Yep I still love this pattern (Interweave Knits Fall 2006).

I knew that I wouldn't have enough yarn to knit the pattern as written so I reduced the number of repeats of the first chart, and then had to fudge the next two charts as the stitch counts no longer worked. Too lazy to rework the charts properly I just eliminated the decreases at the beginning and end of each row until I had the right number of stitches.

When it was finished it was teeny tiny. I was a little worried but as always blocking was magic and the finished scarf is a nice size. Not a shawl - but perfect for wrapping around your neck. Ma has reported that she's been wearing it (hurrah!) and has received a few compliments (hurrah again!).

Of course the trip wasn't only knitting. I got to see lots of family (and I've got lots of family to see!) and catch up on the latest happenings. A highlight was definitely an invitation to the annual pre-Christmas dinner that my father's brothers and sisters hold in early December. There is lots of food and drink and singing and laughing and silly games and .... well everything Christmas should be. They are a lovely, loud, loving group of people, all of whom are a wonderful testament to the gorgeousness that was my grandmother.

That's most of my trip covered knitting-wise. There is one more project which I started at home but have just finished today. More on that later!

NOTE TO LESLIE THE KNITTING THERAPIST: Hi Leslie -- my parents are near Nash Creek. Email me at thingssoolikes at googlemail dot com and let me know where you are now - I'm sure we'll find a common acquaintance somewhere! Also I'm intrigued by the Knitting Therapist tag. Are you a therapist who knits? Or is knitting the latest in therapy?

Spring-ing Back

Oddly, almost as soon as I had decided that the Spring Shawl was 'on a break' and likely to end up a permanent unfinished object I found myself knitting on the edging. I was never convinced I was going to finish it, but I couldn't find the motivation to start another project so I found myself filling spare 10 minutes with the little 12 row repeat of the edging.

All of those little bursts of knitting started to add up and yesterday I realised I was more than 3/4 of the way around the shawl. That inspired me to give it some real attention and today I finished the edging. A quick soak and the usual blocking shenanigans - and ta da!

Some of you might remember that a couple of weeks ago I had a nightmarish moment when the shawl snagged on something while I was knitting it and the yarn in the body of the shawl snapped. I somehow lost where the snag occured and wasn't able to find it again until today.

Well, I sort of found it.

I know that what I'm about to tell you isn't possible but I swear it is true. I eventually found one end of the yarn where the snap happened -- BUT NOT THE OTHER. I carefull poked and prodded in the area but no other end showed itself. Even after blocking the other end hasn't appeared. How Twilight Zone is that?

The finished shawl is HUGE. 94 inches across the top and a 54 inch drop.

The pattern is the Spring Shawl from Heirloom Knitting, and I knit it on 2.75mm needles.

I used a Colourmart cashmere/merino blend in Cardinal - about 120 gms (1850ish metres) of a 150 gm cone. I found the yarn oddly fragile on occasion. Whether it was the yarn or me I don't know -- it might be that I'm not used to a laceweight without the strength of silk (a quick review of my most recent project and all are wool/silk blends). Colourmart certainly has a great reputation generally and I will use them again.

Like all the best love stories I'm hoping this one ends happily ever after......but that Twilight Zone missing yarn end might have other ideas!

Doooooooooomed!!!!

So.

I corrected the drunken mistake.

I repaired the spot where the yarn snapped in the row two below the one I was working on. (FYI - I didn't tink back, with 600 stitch rows that just seemed too much work. Instead I dropped (carefully) about 10 stitches either side of the snap, back to the affected row. I joined a new length of yarn and reknit the stitches on the damaged row using that. I reknit the next row with the dropped stitches.)

Last night I bravely picked up the needles again. I knit along without calamity until I got an annoying work email. I put my knitting down to read the annoying email - and as I picked up the shawl again it snagged on something (I still don't know what) and the yarn snapped again!

Gadzooks!

More annoying -- this break was deep in the body of the shawl and I somehow lost it!! Because the shawl is now so large, I can't spread it out on the needles, and of course the knitting itself looks like wet noodles -- all of which makes searching for a snapped thread like looking for a needle in a haystack. I can't find the break - but I know it's in there. Waiting to cause havoc.

Egads!

So, I carefully put the shawl down.

And I think I'll wait for a sign from the knitting gods before I pick it up again.

Now What?

Many thanks for your support -- I was able to recover from the great drunken knitting fiasco without too much pain. It took a while - but it was a pretty straightforward repair.

So, this morning, ready to face the world I picked up the shawl to knit for an hour or so. I knit about a quarter of a row and then, FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER, the yarn in a row BELOW snapped. Yep. I was pulling a stitch to knit two together - with what I swear was no more than normal force (ie very very little) and poof. Five loose stitches and two loose ends of yarn.

Eeeeek!

I have some plans for repairing the damage which I'll try tomorrow as I think I should stay away from knitting needles today! I'll report back soon.

Despite my drunken and damaged knitting Fleegle and the Lace Maven have both very kindly nominated me for a Blue Ribbon Blog award. Both Fleegle and Lace Maven are really talented lace knitters/designers and that they've selected my blog is particularly encouraging after these recent Spring Shawl disasters.

I am now required to nominate 4 other blogs for the award, but because I could never narrow my favourite knit blogs down to 4 I've decided to go a little off piste here and I'm going to nominate 1 knit-zine site, and 3 cake blogs!!

So first I'll nominate The Inside Loop. The Inside Loop is a new knitting online magazine focusing on UK designers. It's edited by Diane and Kate, both talented young designers, and fibre enthusiasts. Although the patterns are globally appealing - the benefit for UK readers is that the yarns and other supplies are all readily available this side of the pond!!

Having a friend like the Caked Crusader I've learned a lot more about cake and the world of cake blogging than you can imagine. Three cake blogs (other than the Caked Crusader's of course) I particularly like are:
Cakespy - Cakespy devotes itself to finding the best in cake around the US, great photos and sweet cake comics
Cake Wrecks - when good cake goes wrong (a very funny collection of professionally decorated cakes)
52 Cupcakes - way more than 52 amazing cupcake recipes! I confess I've only tried Billy's vanilla cupcakes - but for that recipe alone the blog is worth a visit

Note to Self

Dear Self.

For future reference: when you've spent the evening sampling mojitos and putting the world right with your best friend do NOT (I can't be too emphatic on the NOT) (so I'll repeat it) do NOT decide the right way to unwind before bed is a 'quick row' on the Spring Shawl.

Next time, surf the net. Write a babbling email. Put random numbers into a sudoku puzzle. Stare vacantly at a magazine. Anything really.

Just DON'T knit.

I have just picked up the Spring Shawl and it's not clear from the rather random scattering of YO's, k2tog, SSK's what row from the pattern you thought you were doing.

The first 5 stitches match the pattern (and perhaps I should be grateful for that small miracle) but after that you seem to have gone off in some sort of jazz inspired knitting improvisation.

Drinking and knitting. It's not clever.

(But the mojitos were lovely!)

Where is the Love?

As summer never happened I've decided to skip autumn and winter and I'm moving on to Spring. The Spring Shawl specifically.

The Spring Shawl is one of the Shetland lace Heirloom Knitting patterns by Sharon Miller. Sharon is a very talented designer, responsible for many beautiful patterns including the much admired Princess and Wedding Ring shawls.

I bought the pattern well over a year ago and it never seemed to call out to be made. And in all honesty, it still hadn't when I finally did start it. And therein lies the mystery of why some patterns sing to me, and others don't.

The pattern ticks all the boxes for a pattern I should love. It is undoubtedly a beautiful piece of lace. Pictures of finished shawls I've been able to find are all stunning. It is a big project and a challenging piece of lace. Every row is a pattern row -- perfect for keeping my attention. All of these things say that I should have been chomping at the bit to start this project.

But I wasn't.

It's a bit like those weird occasions where you meet someone who is very attractive, funny, clever - but somehow - they don't make your socks roll. Whatever that indescribable something may be -- they are missing it.

Anyway, I started the project because I felt I should and I have to say that nothing in the first phase of the project changed my feelings. I knit on. But without much enthusiasm. I didn't hate it by any stretch -- but neither did it begin to match the knitting obsession of Lyra. I would have been just as happy to knit on any other project.

I finished the centre triangle and began the deep borders. And something has changed.

When I was on the second pattern row of the border I was convinced I had entirely messed it up. In the time honoured tradition of knitters everywhere I threw the needles into the corner and threatened to abandon the project entirely. I huffed and puffed about how it was a lame project anyway and that if I hadn't had to force myself I wouldn't have even started it and .... and.... and...

And maybe it wasn't such a bad little project after all. I mean look at that red. How could I abandon something that red? And really I probably hadn't messed it up that badly? It was looking quite promising. And I'd finished so much of it already.

So I picked it back up and quite quickly realised what my silly mistake was. A little tinking and knitting and I was soon back in flow.

And in love.

Sadly my new love is not very photogenic at this stage. But this blobby red thing currently has my heart.

I'll keep you posted as our relationship develops.

Mysteries...

I've got a few mysteries to clear up (or try to clear up) today.

The first mystery is - why the heck has it been so long since my last post?

Theoretically, this should be the easiest of the mysteries - but alas, the answer eludes me. Work has been busy but not crazy, no whirl of social events to blame. I've even got knitting stuff to share.

Mystery one remains unsolved. All theories welcome.

Mystery two began Sunday morning when I heard something being put through the letter box. Expecting it was another takeaway menu for the local curry house I didn't rush to pick it up. And when I did pass by the front door about 30 minutes later I was suprised to see it wasn't a menu -- it was last Saturday's 'Rebel Knitter' supplement from the Guardian!

There was no note on the paper so I was initially clueless about where it came from. A bit of Poirot like exercising of the little grey cells and I realised I actually had a few good leads.

It had to be someone who knew I knit. It had to be someone who read the Guardian and someone who would be kind enough to think of me and save the supplement for a week. Finally it had to be someone who might be passing by my house on a Sunday morning but unable to stop.

Someone running perhaps. (Not from the law -- for exercise.) Or someone cycling (similarly for exercise). (Someone perhaps training for a triathalon.)

J'accuse Gavo! (Gavo being Shirl's partner.) I haven't yet confirmed my theory - but I'm pretty confident. Thanks Gavo!!!

Mystery two. Solved. (I think.)

Mystery three is a mystery that I think will ALWAYS be there for me as long as I'm knitting lace. How does this:


Become this:


How can this limp mass of string:


Suddenly(ish) transform into this:


Ok - no real mystery - but blocking is a little bit of knitting magic.

This stole was knit for Old Maiden Aunt Yarns as a sample for some her new yarn. It's a luxurious Alpaca, Silk, Cashmere blend in a cobweb weight. It feels gorgeous and knits up beautifully.

The colourway (which I haven't captured as accurately as I'd like) is a beautiful combination of blues and greens which blend together beautifully.

The lace pattern is Japanese Feather Lace from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. If you don't have the book (go get it!) you can get the stole pattern from Knitspot.

I knit it on 4mm needles.

A few mistakes, a few lessons learned...

...but it came out alright in the end.

This project was never meant to be. I know that now and if I could turn back time (like Doctor Who)(or Cher)(now I've got that dang song in my head) - anyway, if I had it all to do over again I wouldn't have started it. The finished object is nice -but I can't get much more enthusiastic about it than that.

The pattern is fine, if a bit dull. It's the Edwardian Lace Wrap from Heirloom Knitting, and is a very simple garter stitch border with a 12 row repeat diamond pattern for the body.

Mistake number 1: My choice of colour. This blue Kid Silk Haze seemed to have a bit more oooomph when I was looking at in John Lewis surrounded as it was by a rainbow of other yarns. Away from the other colours it just looks sort of drab.



But - this was the yarn I'd chosen, and the Edwardian Lace Wrap had been in my queue for ages so I cast on. The pattern is writen as garter stitch lace (ie every second row is knit rather than purl) and I'm not a big fan of it. So after about 5 repeats I pulled the needles out, ripped out what I had done and started again replacing the knit rows with purl rows.

Mistake number 2: Deciding the second time not to use the 5mm needles recommended but moving down to 4mm needles. I'm struggling to recall my reasons for doing this (particularly as I made a special trip to iKnit to replace my 5mm nickel tips SPECIFICALLY for this project) -- but I can't find one. And it was a mistake. The pattern would be more open, and the edging would be more effective on bigger needles.

I wasn't letting these mistakes get me down (much). I knit on. I knit on with my too small needles and my blah yarn colour. With barely a trace of bitterness. I knit on.

The stole uses a provisional cast on. The first half is knit, then the cast on stitches are picked up and the second half is knit to mirror the first. I added two repeats to each half to make up for the fact that I was using needles that were TOO SMALL.

Finally, I finished the top edge, and cast off the last stitches. Hurrah!

Mistake number 3: Deciding to block the stole at 9pm. On my bed. The one I sleep in. In fact the only bed in the house. What was I thinking pinning a soaking wet stole on to my bed at 9pm!!?? Obviously I wasn't.

I had three choices: 1) stay up all night 2) unpin it all and do it again another day 3) speed up the drying process.




I went for option 3. First I tried turning on the small bedside fan. But it was pretty clear I needed something more drastic. I needed to bring in the big guns.

I bought this fan last summer, and I've never been able to use it. The thing is a wind machine. Anything not weighted down goes flying when this baby is on. So I pulled it out of the closet, placed it at one end of the stole and turned it on 'hurricane' setting.

An hour later the stole was dry and ready to unpin.

Alls well that ends well. Or something like that.



Just the facts:
Edwardian Lace Wrap
4mm needles (fool)
3 skeins Hurricane (blah) Kid Silk Haze

Unblocked: 18 x 56 inches
Blocked: 21 x 68 inches

PS People often (well, occasionally)(errr, once) ask me how I get stoles and scarves to stay put. In this case I've used my latest Romi acquisition - a simple, beautiful shawl pin in silver and black horn. I love her pins and am beginning to suspect I knit lace just so I have someplace to use her pins!

More Stealth Knitting Revealed

These are a couple of shawls I finished in May, which I've been waiting to blog about until I knew they were safely delivered to Canada. They were both made for a dear friend who I've known since university when we worked together while I was on a work term. We shared an office with a lovely man named John, who she went on to marry a few years later. We lost touch (I'm a RUBBISH correspondent)(really rubbish) until she found my email address through a bit of detective work in April. I was so pleased to hear from her, and saddened to hear that John had passed away following some complications with eye surgery about 18 months ago.

As I couldn't reach through the internet to give her a hug, I decided to do the next best thing and picked up my knitting needles and yarn.






Whisper Shawl
I showed her a few patterns and she selected the Whisper Shawl - which as the name suggests is a very open, incredibly light pattern. The pattern didn't have a picture of the front of the shawl which is probably my only real complaint about it. In the end I quite liked the front 'collar' the pattern creates, but as I didn't have a picture of what I was knitting I was pretty dubious while it was in progress.


The shawl is knit as a half circle, with a very wide garter stitch border. The body of the shawl is a very simple 4 row pattern which knits up quickly.

The cast off row includes beading which gives a bit of weight to the lower edge. I used foil lined glass beads and I like the sparkle they added.

Knitting on the front border was pretty straightforward and the pattern for it (like the rest of the pattern) charted and easy to follow.

When it came to blocking the shawl I realised that I really need some curved blocking wires. In their absence I had to carefully pin the shawl out to a half circle shape - creating points where each of the beads were. Blocking, as always, wasn't difficult, but it was time consuming. I began by pinning the long straight edge (where my straight blocking wires were very useful) and then began drawing out the curved edge.

Basically, this entails using lots of pins. If you are slightly obsessive this entails using a crazy number of pins.

If you are me it entails using every pin you have and considering making a mad dash to the nearest shop to buy more.











The details.
Whisper Shawl Pattern - I bought it from the Yarn and Fiber Company.

I used 4 skeins of Kid Silk Haze and 6mm needles and about 350 beads.

Unblocked it was a puny 48" across the top with a 31.5" drop.
Blocked it became a majestic 66" across the top with a 42" drop.

I photographed the shawl on a rainy day in May -- I hope Faye gets better weather to wear it in!!









Clementine Shawlette
And because I've always rather liked the look of the pattern I pulled out a skein of Dream in Colour Smooshy yarn and decided to also make her the Clementine Shawlette from Interweave Knits Spring 2007. This was one of those patterns that just flew along and I really enjoyed making it.

To preserve the symmetry of the chevrons, the shawlette is knit in two pieces. The pattern suggests grafting the two pieces together, but I just cast the stitches off together and I think the effect is tidy (and faster!).

I like the casual look of the shawlette, and think it would be quite sweet with a summer dress or a pair of jeans.

Random Act of Kindness Revealed

Ta da!


This is a capelet (I'm not actually sure that capelet is a word, but I've been using it a lot this week, so if it isn't it should be) that I knit up for the friend of a friend who is getting married this weekend. I've never met this friend of a friend (FoaF), or in fact know anything about her, but on Thursday last week my friend (the one I do know) mentioned that the FoaF had her wedding dress (a lovely strapless, non-meringue type dress) but was having trouble finding a scarf or something to wear if it gets chilly.

It occured to me that I had a squillion skeins of laceweight yarn and a love of knitting lacey things so I asked my friend if she thought FoaF would have any interest in something I made. A resounding yes was the answer - and so off to knit I went.

Being short of time (the wedding is this Saturday) I decided a full stole or shawl wouldn't work and so I hit on the capelet idea. I had some Kid Silk Haze in cream and some glass beads which I thought would work nicely with the ivory colour of the dress (although that's a bit iffy, I've seen a photo of the dress online, who knows what the colour is in real life). I decided on the feather and fan pattern as it meant I'd have a scalloped edge without having to knit on a border (time saving!) and 5mm needles because I thought big loose knitting would give an airy look (and would make the knitting faster!).

Basically, I crochet cast on about 70 stitches, knit 5 stitches on each end in garter stitch throughout, and divided the remaining stitches into 12 pattern repeats of feather and fan. I increased in each pattern repeat every second row for about 16 rows, then moved to increasing every forth row, then to increasing every 8th row until I had about 50 rows completed.

I knit a couple of plain rows, then added the full row of beading (that took a looooong time as there were about 450 stitches to be beaded!) on the right side, then a knit row on the wrong side. Cast off with a lace cast off to preserve the lovely scallops.

Then to finish it off I picked up the cast on stitches, beaded each of those on the right side, then a knit row on the wrong side. Finally I cast off that edge with a picot cast off.

I used a little less than 2 skeins of KSH, and about 520 small beads.

I gave the capelet a fairly lenient blocking -- I stretched the lace and just shaped the scallops by hand -- no pins!!!

I don't think these photos do it justice - I'm very pleased with the final result. The beads add a lovely bit of sparkle to the hem and neckline that the photos just don't pick up. If I were to make another one I would do fewer garter edge stitches (2 or 3) and probably add a picot to give a bit of interest to those edges. I'd also consider doing 2 rows of beading around the neckline.

The capelet is winging its way to the bride now. Of course I realise (as I have through this process) that it may not work with the dress or it might not be to FoaF's taste -- but I'm ok with that. I figure even if it doesn't feature in the big day she can pass it on to one of her friends in her own random act of kindness and EVENTUALLY it'll get its moment in the sun!!


Baby Surprise Jacket Collar
Emily asked in the comments how I did the collar on the BSJ. It was pretty straightforward really, after seaming the sleeves I picked up about 16 stitches along the left neck edge, a similar amount along the back neck edge, and then 16 stitches along the right neck edge. Don't worry about the exact number of stitches - 16ish is fine. Then I knit about 15 or 16 rows in garter stitch and cast off. Voila! A collar!

Wyoming!
One of the things I love about keeping the blog is when someone new stumbles across it and comments on older posts. Some of you might recall the crisis of confidence I faced last year when it seemed IMPOSSIBLE to find a Wyoming-ite to read the blog. Well, Janet dropped by a couple of days ago and she is indeed from Wyoming! Way to go Wyoming! She filled me in on the Wyoming knitting scene and recommended a good little LYS if I'm ever in the neighbourhood. Thanks Janet!

It's Like Christmas in May....

.... Mostly because I'm working on some stealth projects and it has reminded me of the blog material void I faced last December when I was finishing up my Christmas knitting. All of that to say I've got a couple of interesting projects on the go - but I can't tell you about them.

Aren't you glad you stopped by?

Instead of the interesting projects, I'll post some pictures of recently completed socks. Hurrah!

These are the Embossed Leaves socks that I started when I went to Qatar earlier this month. I ripped them back and they are no longer too big for human feet and I'm very fond of the finished product. The pattern is from Favourite Socks and is definitely on my favourite sock pattern list. The leaf pattern is pretty easy to memorise, but interesting enough to keep you zipping around.

This is my first pair of Socks that Rock socks, and I am ready to take out a mortgage to stock up on more. The yarn really is lovely and squishy and the colour is great.

After successfully completing a pair of identical socks from self striping yarn, I've gone back to my lax ways and whipped up these fraternal socks using Kaffe Fasset regia sock yarn.

(Miraculously, I actually know that this is 'Landscape Storm' colourway. Go me!)

And because I had 5 pairs of socks finished but not yet distributed I decided to take a socks on parade photo because I could and I'm sad that way.



On a less productive note, I have decided that the Faux Russian Stole I started last month is never going to be. You may recall that I started it using some lovely (but crazy crocking) Claudia's silk. And I can't really say why - but the project never really took off. I did about 60 rows, but each with little or no enthusiasm, and since then I can't seem to convince myself to pick it up again.

So today I pulled it off the needles and ripped it all out.


I still like the pattern, and I love the silk - so I expect both will reappear (separately) at some point.

(And for those of you whose hearts have stopped at the photo of the unravelled yarn in a heap. Fear not. All was lovingly rewound. No laceweight was hurt in the making of this blog.)

...and back to Knitting!

(If you haven't already entered my blog anniversary contest - what are you waiting for??? Go do it now!!)(Go - Go - you have to enter by Monday!)

Right, with that out of the way it's back to knitting.

Last week was not a good knitting week due to travel to the Middle East (Qatar specifically) and a freaky hand strain/injury thing which had me NOT KNITTING for 4 WHOLE days. 4! 2 of those were weekend days. Tragedy.

Anyway - I'm back at home, my hand is once again pain free and I have a bit of knitting to show for it.

First up is the Stormwater Shawl, in 2 skeins of 'Nova Scotia' Handmaiden SeaSilk. (I got mine as a lovely kit from Purlescence.)

This is a really simple pattern which I loved knitting. Once you've established the pattern very little concentration is required - which was exactly what I needed! (Work stuff is occupying most of my brain right now.)

Because it is knit from the handpainted SeaSilk you have to work from both skeins at once to avoid the dreaded 'slight but very noticeable' variation in colour. (As I learned last year with the Melon Shawl.)

The pattern suggests a clever way of knitting the pattern on a short circular needle so that you swap between the two yarns every row, rather than every two rows.

For example, if the scarf was plain stocking stitch you would cast on with both yarns together. Then:
Row 1: (Right Side) knit with yarn 1, at the end of the row do not turn your work. Instead slide it back along the needle so you are ready to start row 2 with yarn 2.
Row 2: (Right Side) knit with yarn 2, at the end of the row turn your work
Row 3: (Wrong Side) purl with yarn 1, at the end of the row do not turn your work. Instead slide it back along the needle so you are ready to start row 4 with yarn 2.
Row 4: (Wrong Side) purl with yarn 2, at the end of the row turn your work

....and repeat.

It's a nice way of getting single stripes of the two yarns, however, doing it that way meant I had to execue SSP's (slip, slip, purl) a lot, which annoyed me so I was lazy and did it the two rows yarn 1, two rows yarn 2.

As always the blocking process fascinates me. Here's the pre-blocked stole, ok, but nothing special. It's about 18 inches x 60 inches. A long soak and then a patient (ish) pinning session stretches out the stitches and really opens up the pattern.









Released from the pins -- and it's like a totally different piece of knitting!

Finished size is 24 inches x 74 inches.

Its a nice stole and more casual than most of the others I've made. Perfect for evening strolls by the sea in August. (I don't do evening strolls by the sea in August -- but if I did - this would be perfect.)



I finished my identical self striping socks. Opal yarn - have no idea what the colourway is called.

And on the flight to/from Qatar I worked on a pair of socks (Embossed Leaves from Favourite Socks) in a lovely green Socks that Rock yarn. These are my first Socks that Rock socks and I can confirm they do indeed rock.

Unfortunately though, I didn't have any of my 1000 measuring tapes with me on the flights and ....well....I think altitude affects my ability to judge the size of my feet.



(What? You still haven't entered my contest? Sheesh - for the last time - go!)